Rockport Strong 4 Ever
Updated: Aug 25, 2022
These were the first images I received of our store one day after Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Rockport. The first one was sent to my mom from the daughter of a previous
renter of our building whom we had kept in contact with through the years. It was taken early that morning, although we didn't receive it til around lunchtime when they had left town to find electricity (and wifi!) By that time, my brother and dad had made it back into Rockport as they left early the morning after Harvey hit to assess the damages.
The second photo was taken by my dad.
We didn't know much, any updates on social media were cut off after the eye of the storm passed, and round 2 of hurricane harvey commenced. Wifi and electricity had been gone for many hours, and most of those still posting updates had used up their phone batteries, and we were left waiting.
When we received this photo, we didn't have any other information from my dad or brother. We knew when they left for town and knew about what time they should make it, but that was it. Somehow they were able to get just enough connection to send this photo to us.
Dad immediately put our pink shark back up that had ridden out the storm from inside the building. He put out our American flag, and my brother picked up some debris and a can of spray paint he found behind the shop from our storage shed that had lost all of it's walls, and quickly sprayed the signs you see in the photo. While they were sorting through debris, finding pieces that were ours and beginning clean-up, local RV park owner Lee Hanzalik and his wife drove by and snapped this photo. This would be one of the very first photos taken of the Rockport Strong sign, and you can see both my brother and dad on the left moving our antique fish sign back to our building.
From that photo, it didn't look so bad. You couldn't see the buildings on the left completely destroyed and collapsed, or the ones across the street. You couldn't see all the devastation. You saw our happy little building, our family business of 12 years that has brought us all so much joy & love, and of course--a bit of humor.